ShoreBank Blog

Solidarity Forever

by David on May 5th, 2009

Memorial Day, 1937.  Chicago. Several thousand striking steelworkers and their families gather in a field near the Republic Steel plant to obtain recognition for their union. Singing “Solidarity forever! The union makes us strong!” and carrying banners, they approach the plant.  But between the men, their families, and Republic Steel stand 500 Chicago policemen.  The police move forward, first swinging their nightsticks and then firing tear gas grenades and guns shouting “you got no rights.” Within a few minutes seven workers are dead and more than one hundred seriously hurt.  The event has come down through Labor history as the Memorial Day Massacre.

May 1, 2009, a day celebrated in many countries as International Workers’ Day in honor of the achievements of Organized Labor.  New York City.  The United Automobile Workers, representing Chrysler’s unionized workers, agrees to a bankruptcy that would effectively give it a 55% ownership stake in the company.  The UAW’s contract is preserved through the bankruptcy, meaning it will not have to renegotiate its lucrative salaries and benefits with Fiat, the Italian automobile manufacturer that will operate the new Chrysler.

Of course, the deal will be worth nothing if Chrysler goes down, a very real possibility.  New, Fiat-designed Chryslers will not be roll off the assembly lines for two years or more, and Fiat, in the past, has had no success in cracking the American market.  Not that Chrysler has had much success lately.  Its U.S. deliveries in April dropped to 76,682 units, down 48% from a year ago and 60% less than in April 2007.  Chrysler isn’t alone; total U.S. auto sales fell in April, for the 18^th consecutive month to just 819,540 units. But, at 9.4% of U.S. sales, Chrysler is behind GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda.

Organized labor, still oppressed in 1937, reached its zenith in the 1950s and 60s, when America’s industrial might was unchallenged.  The notion that one of the Big Three automakers could fail would have been preposterous.  Labor flexed its muscles, wringing ever-greater concessions from Capital.  But the world turned, and now, at least at Chrysler, Labor is Capital.

Tags: community development, economic predictors, green banking, ShoreBank, triple bottom line

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